


Rooftops

by derryderrydown



Category: Batman - Fandom, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-07
Updated: 2009-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-04 05:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/derryderrydown/pseuds/derryderrydown





	Rooftops

Roy sits himself down on a Gotham rooftop and waits. After five minutes, the shadows deepen.

"I'm not here to see you," Roy says.

The silence becomes louder.

"I worked with him. Only once but he was Robin. I figured I'd have time to get to know him." It's dangerous but he says it anyway. "When you'd lost Robins in the past, they'd come to us." _Us_, not _me_.

"Touching."

It's not the voice he was expecting and he looks round and up into the shiny mask. Roy shakes his head. "Too many people are fooling me with their Bat impressions." He gestures. "Take the hat off. I know who you are."

There's a long pause and Jason pulls off the hood. Underneath, he's wearing a red domino.

"When Ollie came back, he was younger." Roy lets himself grin. "If you'd come back younger, you'd be in diapers."

"What do you want, Harper?"

"Wanted to see how you are. Ollie had... problems when he came back."

"I'm just fine." Jason's smile is manic and Roy is reminded of the day when Lian got Jokerised. He holds back a shudder. "The criminals are the ones with the problems."

"Yeah. I heard." And Roy has a more flexible morality than most of the cape and cowl set but even so. Eight heads. "You're making a splash."

"They've got to learn. If they break the law, they get punished." Jason crouches next to Roy and his words are hissed, intense. "If Bruce had killed the Joker when he first broke the law, I wouldn't be here."

Because Bruce wouldn't be here. The city wouldn't tolerate a guardian that vicious. Not even Gotham.

Well. Probably not even Gotham.

Jason moves closer still and, when he continues, spittle lands on Roy's cheek. "If Ollie had done his job and killed the drug dealers, you wouldn't be a junkie."

It takes a moment but, "Sure," is all Roy says on that score. And he doesn't wipe his cheek. Instead, he pats the roof next to him. "Sit down."

It's a kind of victory when, at length, Jason does.

"You got somewhere to stay, right? Food and all that crap?"

"I'm not a victim."

Roy turns to look at him. "You got your head smashed in. You got killed. You're a victim."

"I'm _not_ a victim. I've had revenge. I've had _justice_." The last word is filled with unholy glee.

"Sure," Roy says again, and looks back out at the city. Chances are good that the Bat is watching. Jason knows that as much as Roy does, which means this conversation's being played out for Bruce. Damn. He didn't come here for the posturing.

He doesn't actually know why he came here.

"But you're eating properly, in between decapitating dealers?"

"What's up with you, Harper?" Jason sounds honestly confused.

Roy shrugs. "You were a kid when I knew you."

"You never knew me."

"Okay. When I worked with you." He runs the risk of nudging Jason and he still has his arm attached afterwards. "I liked you, you know. You were a cocky little bastard and you weren't afraid of anything."

"You want to be friends?" Roy tells himself he's imagining the loneliness under the sarcasm.

"Not particularly. Right now, you're a bit vicious for my taste."

"Your girlfriend nuked a country," Jason points out.

"It was after we'd split up." Roy grins. "It makes a difference."

"Why are you _here?_"

"Look." Roy rests his chin on his hands. "Various Titans have turned evil; tried to eat their teammates; imprisoned their teammates in giant gloopy egg-things; tried to wipe out the planet; turned out to be dimension-hopping versions of themselves; turned out to be _evil_ dimension-hopping versions of themselves; died; come back; come back as gods; and cooked really disgusting things for dinner, which they then expected their teammates to eat. End of the day, they've all been forgiven."

There's a breath of laughter. "Are you trying to recruit me for the Titans?"

"Not really. I'm not on the current roster. But you'd probably fit in with my team, now Nightwing's left." Grace probably wouldn't have too much of a problem with the killing thing, even.

"I haven't visited the Titans," Jason says thoughtfully.

Roy tries, very hard, to believe that the sinking feeling isn't justified.

"Thanks for the idea, Harper." Jason stands up. "Don't bother visiting Gotham again. Nobody here wants to see you."


End file.
